We bought the corn muffin mix at the store for 2 boxes per dollar, and each box will make plenty for the 2 of us. We keep a few on hand just in case we crave corn pancakes. The meal is quick, the dishes are light, and it will only cost a buck or two per person for the meal. This is the kind of food I like to cook. 

p.s. for a picture representation of the process, continue below Jazmine’s article. 

Southwestern Corn Pancakes

by Jazmine

Budget meals can quickly become tired and bland, especially when pasta and canned goods are typical budget fare. However, shopping for common ingredients and using them in uncommon ways can add new flavors and textures to everyday dishes.  Look forcorn muffin mix to make corncakes for breakfast or buy sweet potatoes, instead of Idaho, to make mashed sweet potatoes.

This meal takes a typical breakfast food and turns it upside down. In addition to being cheap, Southwestern Corn Cakes are quick, simple, and can double as a breakfast or brunch. Jiffy corn muffin mix can easily be converted to pancakes using the instructions on the side. Add a fried egg on top for protein and substance, giving you energy for class or work.  Replacing syrup with salsa fresca wakes you up in the morning and has the added benefit of fewer calories and keeps away the dreaded sugar crash.

Recipe serves two:

1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix

¾ Cups water

1 egg

3-4 Eggs for frying

Salsa Fresca (can be replaced with store bought salsa or hot sauce)

1 Tomato

1 Onion

1 Clove of garlic

1 bunch of cilantro

Roughly chop tomatoes, onion, garlic, and cilantro and combine in a Tupperware container. Shake ingredients for a bit so flavors combine.

Preheat large frying pan or skillet on medium heat. Stir muffin mix, water, and one egg in large bowl until combined.  Grease bottom of skillet and pour about ½ cup of batter for each cake. Cook until sides are barely crisp and top is bubbly, then flip. One package will make about 6-8 medium sized pancakes. Fry eggs sunny side up or over easy and then lay over corn cakes. Add salsa over the top of everything to taste and enjoy!

Picture Representation

by Clay

Started with the mix in a small bowl. 

Then added the ingredients.

 
Dropped some batter onto the skillet and waited until it was a little browned around the edges and there’s a couple of bubbles (what it says on the box).  

Then a flipped …. It was a little burnt. 

It’s really good with some salsa (as though it was syrup for non-corn pancakes). 

And it’s really good with a fried egg.

The white was still a bit runny. Flipped it over for a sec, but I still wanted the yellow to be runny. That makes every egg-on-top dish good. 

Added the egg. 

I like it with some green salsa. 

I threw in some squash, onion, and mushroom better than bouillon. The outcome was very delicious indeed. I ended up putting it on both rice and pasta, but I really didn’t need to add it to anything. 

To start this stew I cut up all of the veggies into stew-sized portions. Well duh.

With the Okra, I wanted to squeeze out some of the goo. After cutting them up, I put it in some paper towels. 

Covered it and rolled it up.

Then gave it a good squeeze. 

This didn’t work as well as plan. Just act like it did ;p. jk jk. Anyhow …

Turning to my pot that I heated for a minute or so on medium heat, I tossed in some olive oil and onions. I wanted the onions a bit tender and translucent. This brings out the sugars hidden in onions. 

After cooking for about 5 minutes, I added some squash and covered it. 

5 more minutes, then the green peppers.

Then some mushroom better than bouillon and water. 

Here’s the stuff. 

And the black eyed peas … the original black eyed peas. Please don’t add a CD of the black eyed peas … I doubt it would turn out tasty.  

After simmering for probably half an hour (might have been an hour, I forgot), I got some delicious stew. 

I think I just seasoned this with some salt, pepper, and curry powder. 

Stew’s my easy way to get all the good stuff from veggies sitting around in your fridge. There’s no recipe necessary. I usually just toss whatever I want in it (as long as I think the flavors compliment). Some of the ingredients I have added to stew have been cheese, egg, peanut butter, meat, veggies, starches (potatoes, yuca, etc), spices, diced tomatoes, coconut milk, cream, milk, and broth. I haven’t yet tried to put them in all at once … and I don’t think I will. But with just veggies, broth, and seasonings, I made the delicious stew shown above. 

On a side now toss on a fried egg or two onto any thick soup or stew and you’ll get an amazing and hardy breakfast. 

Yup. Just about anything goes with stew, even an egg. I used the delicious black bean soup from The Vintage Garden Kitchen for this start-of-the-day meal.

Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of the whole process, but here’s the final product of my efforts. 

Delicious, ain’t it. I’m sorry, you must be drooling a bit. You should go try making it. 

I’m definitely making this again. It was a lot less trouble than I initially expected. I was able to walk away and tend to other things while making this. I also got rid of some veggies that seemed to linger in the kitchen (squash and tomatoes). 

Simple recipe. Not much trouble. I highly recommend it. Took about an hour of on&off attention for this pan of deliciousness. Want to make it yourself? Then check out the New York Times recipe.

Ingredients: olive oil, zucchini or squash, tomatoes (canned is ok … i just used one and a half creole tomatoes), sugar, garlic, onion, eggs, salt and pepper).

The whole dish feeding about 2~3 meals probably cost me less than 5 bucks (woah, and I didn’t even have to use Ramen). Dishes to clean were a cutting board, spatula, knife, a cast iron pan, and lid.

Note: Don’t have a cast iron pan? I don’t think it would make much of a difference in using a regular non-stick pan. You may have some problems in heat transfer, but probably not much. I recommend trying this dish even if you don’t have this pan.

Also note: Also, I’m sure eggplant would  be a good substitute to the zucchini or squash, but it may become a bit acidic with the tomato. Maybe add in a carrot before cooking to cut the acidity and than take it out after cooking. 

The beef kabobs had left me with some drippings. Wahoo, drippings!

The thrifty American that I am, I decided to use them rather than toss them. And why not, their delicious … Anyhow so I whipped up some batter for Yorkshire pudding. 

First I started some batter since it had to sit for an hour.

I scrambled some eggs. 

Tossed them into the milk/flour mixture. Stirred in some melted butter. 

Now I could make nice little, fluffy yorkshire puddings with my muffin pan, or I could be lazy with less dishes and do it in the casserole dish.  …. Hmmm, I’ll be lazy. After 45 minutes of letting the batter sit, I tossed the drippings back into the hot oven to get them ready for the batter. After 10 minutes I opened the oven to remove the hot drippings and smoke flew out of the oven. Beneath the smoke I found this abomination of cooking in place of my beautiful drippings. 

Boo charcoal!

Wow. This didn’t happen before.  Thinking back … oh crap. This time I used the corn syrup “thai” sauce from Zea. Grrr the corn syrup must have burned and left me this mess. (I had to scrub the dish with a fork and scotchbrite for a week before I could get the burned mess off.)

Realizing that I had some batter for a possible delicious fluffy vegetarian twist of the yorkshire pudding, I tossed in some veggie oil into my other casserole dish and threw it into the oven. After 10 minutes, I poured the batter and baked it for 20 minutes. 

Instead of getting the fluffy, wonderful bread that clouds in heaven must be made of, I got this. 

A mediocre, greasy, fluffless, not-at-all-savory, wannabe yorkshire pudding. 

This won’t be last time I attempt the fluffy yorkshire pudding. One of these days beef drippings will be mine again … in a delicious bread form.